


Where the Heart Is

by lunabee34 (Lorraine)



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Missing Scene, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 17:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16644515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorraine/pseuds/lunabee34
Summary: Eddie’s mind is complex, but it falls open for Venom like a book, an idiom that Venom now understands thanks to their mental link.  Eddie’s body falls open for him, too, all Eddie’s constituent parts melding seamlessly with Venom’s substance to become something more than either of them could ever be on their own.A treat for Unforgotten





	Where the Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unforgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/gifts).



> Eddie (and Venom!) are definitely interested in pursuing a relationship with Anne, but she's with Dan at this point in canon, so their interest is unrequited.

Sliding into the human’s body feels wonderful after being locked inside cold glass and plastic. From the start, claiming him—claiming Eddie—feels different than taking a host has ever felt before. Venom feels less like he is inhabiting someone else and more like he has finally become his true self.

Eddie’s mind is complex, but it falls open for Venom like a book, an idiom that Venom now understands thanks to their mental link. Eddie’s body falls open for him, too, all Eddie’s constituent parts melding seamlessly with Venom’s substance to become something more than either of them could ever be on their own.

On Klyntar, Venom has worn hosts many times. He has put on bodies, donned his food, sloshed around inside cages of meat. He has spent his entire life fighting the bodies he’s worn, trying to keep their pitiful organs from atrophying, quelling their ridiculous mental qualms, laboring to fluidly merge his power with their structural forms. He has never been very successful. Venom has never found a true host; he’s never truly integrated, never achieved true symbiosis. That is, not until Eddie.

Venom has always been a loser. He’s second tier, nothing compared to Riot who always manages to find a perfect match. Venom used to believe Riot’s luck in hosts to be largely a product of his family connections. Riot never has to take the dregs or comb through the leftovers, for example; Riot always gets first pick. Now Venom isn’t so sure. Riot’s luck seems to extend beyond wealth and privilege. He easily bonds with human hosts taken by necessity, not choice. Maybe at the heart, Riot’s just stronger than Venom, but that doesn’t matter very much anymore. Riot isn’t stronger than Eddie and Venom together.

When Venom secures Eddie to his motorcycle and threads them through traffic, easily evading the pursuing vehicles, he feels sheer joy and exhilaration. He can break Eddie’s body and put it back together again. He can become armor or weapon. He can extend reach, strengthen grip, defy death. And best of all, Venom can feel Eddie’s shared joy in their union (albeit reluctant joy at this point), feel how _cool_ Eddie thinks he is with the wind blowing into his face and the sound of glass shattering somewhere behind him.

By the time Venom slips inside Anne’s body (and in terms of symbiosis, their incompatibility is almost physically painful to him now even though Anne is a superior vessel to most that he has taken in his lifetime), he has decided that he cannot allow Earth to fall. He cannot allow Eddie or Anne to become mere food. Eddie is not a tool, not a thing. Eddie is a true partner, and Venom believes that’s worth preserving at all costs.

Most of Venom incinerates in the explosion that destroys Riot, but a kernel of his substance remains intact inside Eddie. It’s enough. Eddie is still treading water when what’s left of Venom grows strong enough to project thoughts into his mind.

“We did it,” Venom says. “Earth is safe from invasion. For now at least.”

“You’re alive! Holy shit, you’re alive!” Eddie says, and then he grins. Venom can see the expression on his face reflected in a thousand droplets of water—manic and fierce and glad, so glad. 

“It’ll take more than a little fire to get rid of me.” Perhaps not much more, but Eddie doesn’t need to know that.

Eddie stops treading water and starts swimming toward the pier. “Anne saw you burn. She thinks you’re dead, and we should keep it that way. As far as everyone else is concerned, whatever nefarious plan the Life Foundation had should be completely over.”

“Aww,” Venom says. “You do care.”

“I care about some government scientist locking us up in a cell in the middle of nowhere or dissecting me to figure out how you work.” Eddie finally reaches the pier and hauls himself out of the water, flopping over onto his back and breathing heavily. “Trust me. You need to stay a secret. For both our sakes.”

Anne comes running out of the control room, and Eddie levers himself up into a sitting position. 

“Oh, my god, Eddie, are you okay?” she says. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? What about Venom? I saw the explosion.”

Eddie shakes his head. “He didn’t make it.”

Anne looks almost disappointed. Venom is delighted. “I’m sorry, Eddie,” she says. Venom decides at that moment that bringing the two of them back together is high priority.

“She misses me,” Venom says inside Eddie’s head, “but I think she misses you even more. When we were joined, I could feel how conflicted she is, how deeply part of her longs for you.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Eddie thinks back. “Wait, really?”

“You’re not okay, buddy,” Anne says, pressing a warm hand to Eddie’s cold forehead. “I’m taking you to the hospital. Dan should check you out.”

“If we hurry,” Venom says, “I should still be small enough that his machines cannot detect me.”

After Eddie has been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, after he has spoken to the authorities and the press, after he and Anne have all but admitted their unresolved sexual tension, after Venom has finally eaten—he and Eddie go home.

“Why did you side with us against Riot?” Eddie says while sweeping the debris that fills his apartment into a pile. “I know what you said before, but I don’t get it. Why betray your own people for Earth?”

Venom weighs his options. Eddie can hide nothing from him, no emotion or thought or biological process of his body. All of Eddie is exposed to Venom, but Eddie’s access to Venom is limited. He cannot read Venom’s mind or hear his thoughts without Venom’s permission or feel Venom’s emotions outside of very strong imperatives like hunger. Venom is a cipher to Eddie unless Venom chooses otherwise, and Venom has never chosen otherwise with a host.

“You might want to sit down for this,” Venom says and knocks Eddie back onto the couch. Then he opens their connection all the way and shows Eddie exactly why he’s made Earth—made Eddie—his new home.


End file.
